Ecuador: Siege State After President Rescued

12:20pm UK, Friday October 01, 2010
Jo Couzens and Huw Borland, Sky News Online

Ecuador is under a state of siege after soldiers rescued the country's president from a hospital where he was trapped for more than 12 hours by renegade soldiers.

TV images showed heavy gunfire before President Rafael Correa was taken out of the building, in the capital city of Quito, to the country's presidential palace.
Other footage showed one member of the security forces lying in the street, apparently wounded by the shooting.
Soldiers with shields then rushed over to help him, as a voice called out over a loudspeaker: "Don't shoot. Don't shoot."
At least three people - two police officers and a soldier - were reportedly killed and dozens injured in the violent end to a stand-off that has shaken the South American nation.
Unrest in Ecuador
A car set ablaze in Quito
The violence has drawn widespread international condemnation, with the US offering its full support for Ecuador's president.
In a speech from the palace's balcony, President Correa told hundreds of his cheering supporters an attempted coup had been defeated.
Mr Correa and his ministers say the revolt is not just a simple insurrection over a new law that would cut benefits for public servants.
Some 27 of the president's special forces bodyguards were injured in the violence, he added.
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa (centre) gestures as he runs away from tear gas in Quito, Ecuador, during a protest by police officers and soldiers against a new law that cuts their benefits.
Mr Correa after the tear gas attack
The president said the police rebels had planned to kill him, adding that at least one officer had "fallen" during fighting around the hospital.
"They wanted deaths, they wanted blood," he said.
"Believe me that, when I was freed and they told me that there was at least one policeman fallen, I cried, not out of fear, but sadness," he said.
Mr Correa had initially gone to the hospital after being shoved and tear-gassed by demonstrators.
I leave here as president or they take me out as a corpse.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, speaking from hospital
The police, protesting against budget cuts, then surrounded the hospital.
But the troops managed to get the president safely out of the building, where he had spent most of the day.
Airports had been shut down and major roads blocked during the nationwide police strike.
The government has declared a state of emergency, putting the military in charge of public order and suspending civil liberties.

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Ecuador Siege

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The country's police chief has resigned following the rebellion.
During the hospital siege, Mr Correa, 47, had insisted he would not negotiate with dissident officers unless they ended their demonstration.
"I leave here as president or they take me out as a corpse," he said in a telephone interview from the hospital.
He also accused rivals of trying to topple him in a coup.
The protesters oppose a law that would cut their benefits, as part of austerity measures.
Witnesses said there was looting in Quito and in Guayaquil, and that many workers and schoolchildren had been sent home.
Unrest in Ecuador
Police officers battled soldiers in the Ecuadorean capital
Britons in Ecuador are being advised by the Foreign Office to stay indoors and put travel plans on hold until the situation improves.
Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne said: "We are very concerned about the ongoing unrest in Ecuador.
"The UK strongly urges all parties to refrain from violence and to respect the democratic, constitutional government of Ecuador. I call on all sides to restore order quickly and peacefully."
Ecuador, a South American OPEC member of some 14 million people, has a long history of political instability.
Street protests toppled three presidents during economic turmoil in the decade before Mr Correa took power.
:: For more information and travel advice go to the Foreign Office website.